Monday, December 16, 2013

I am
submitting my Christmas Wish List in hopes that I will get everything this year.Most of the things on my list are inexpensive
and I have been a good boy, so please do your best to fill my wishes.

- Give
a pint of blood.Contact your local Red
Cross or blood agency and donate a pint.Remember - this is giving the gift of life.

- Get
a physical or have that medical test you’ve been putting off. (Mammogram,
colonoscopy, prostate exam, etc.)This
is the most expensive thing on my list but it will protect my most precious
possession – your friendship.

- Go
sit alone in the woods.Find the most
remote area you can get to easily and just go sit in the woods for at least a half-hour.

- Feed
the birds. Buy an inexpensive bird feeder and some birdseed and put it where
you can see the jewels of God’s creation.You will be in good company because God is a bird watcher too.(Matthew 10:29)

- Send
a letter.(Not an e-mail.)Think of someone who impacted your life – a
teacher, a mentor, or a business associate – and write them a letter telling
them how they changed your life.

- Give
some money to a homeless person.Yes, I
know they may not use it for good purposes, but who knows – you may just make a
difference in their life.

- Give
a hug.Identify someone in your life
that you just don’t hug often enough.Seek them out and give them a long, warm hug.Maybe even throw in a kiss.

- Read
to a child.If you don’t have any in
your immediate family, call the local library and volunteer to read at children’s
hour.

- Attend
a Christmas pageant.Not the
professional one at the civic center and not the spectacle at the mega church
in town.Go to the one at your
neighborhood church. The one where the little kids with coat hanger halos make
up the angel choir. The one where shepherds
are dressed in bathrobes, and Mary and Joseph look like the young couple from
down the street – the ones with the new baby.

- Volunteer
some of your time.Yes I know you are
busy but there are so many good organizations doing wonderful things that could
use a few hours of your time.

- Visit
an art museum.Walk slowly and pause at
each work.Consider your feelings as you
observe because art should elicit emotions not just intellect.

- Read
an uplifting book.Not something related
to your job.Not a fiction work.Read something that challenges you to be
better human.

- Take
one hour and play.Remember the play of
your youth.Running, biking, skating,
rolling in a pile of leaves, tossing a ball, hide and seek – whatever makes you
feel like a kid again.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Teachers touch so many lives. Nathan Farrar was a man who by all accounts truly loved the art and practice of education. He served Vol State for 18 years as an adjunct faculty member in Biology. Nathan passed away last weekend.

The Math and Science Division has set up a memorial web page that describes his dedication to his students and to education. Please take a moment to visit. Students have been leaving testimonials on the page and also on Facebook. It's just a small indication of the many, many lives that Nathan touched while teaching at Vol State. Our deepest sympathy to his family and friends.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Employee Relations Committee would like to extend a big THANK YOU to all who participated in the Holiday Door Contest! Creativity and a festive spirit touched just about every corner on campus! Our judges for the event were Mrs. Wanda Faulkner and Foundation Trustee, Ed Mayberry who volunteered their time to view and vote on our entries.

Each entry is listed below along with the ranking of winners:

Off-Campus Services features "The Elf on the Shelf"

The Office of Human Resources has a Christmas tree puzzle to solve.....2nd Place, Single Decorated Area

Thursday, December 5, 2013

It’s not the typical musical instrument for a kid to choose. Cindy Wyatt
says the appeal for her was immediate. She knew that she wanted to
play the harp. “I started when I was 11,” she said. “It was very glamorous. A
harp is a beautiful thing for a kid.”

That harp has taken the Vol State Associate
Professor of English many interesting places. When she is not teaching
literature or composition, she can often be found in a Nashville recording
studio. You may have heard a few of the artists that she has recorded for: “Faith
Hill, Garth Brooks, Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap and Glenn Campbell,” she
said, with just a partial list. “Johnny Cash did a Christmas TV special and I
was on camera with him. They put makeup on me and it gave me a rash for two
weeks. I looked like a pumpkin.”

Like many Nashville session musicians, she usually does her tracks by
herself and long after the artist has finished. She remembers one recording moment
in particular. “Usually I’m overdubbing and so it was eerie to me that this was
Elvis singing in my head. It was just amazing.” It was harp work for Elvis’s
last album, before he died.

Wyatt has plenty of memories and even played on a big hit, “When I Dream”
by Crystal Gayle. But it may be a rather odd piece of recent Christmas music
that brings her artistry to the widest audience.

“I got the call in early October. It was for the Duck Dynasty Christmas
CD. I was called in to do a harp overdub for “Duck the Halls.”

“Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas” debuted in the Billboard
top ten in November and is being called one of the hottest selling CDs of the
Christmas season. The CD features the cast of the mega-popular reality TV show
“Duck Dynasty.”

“I thought the music was kind of hokey, actually,” said Wyatt. “But they
are so popular, everyone is getting it.”

Wyatt plays everything from jazz and classical to Celtic music on the
harp. She is also a writer and that ties in with a life-long dream. “I had a
fantasy that I would write a novel that would be published and Johnny Carson
would have me on and I would play my harp,” she said with a laugh.

The Carson dream may now be unobtainable, but the harp session work will
most likely continue. “My mother realized early on that harpists are pretty
rare in the music world. So, there are more jobs available to harpists; which
is still true.”

There is still one more dream and, perhaps, a more achievable one. “I
never have had a gold record,” she said.

If the Duck Dynasty CD continues to sell, the television stars may help
her reach a milestone that Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks and Faith Hill could
not.

Laurette Nuckols began her Vol State career in 1991. She is retiring this year after more than 22 years of service to the College, most recently as Executive Aide in the Office of the VP for Academic Affairs. Friends and co-workers gathered to wish her the best during a party this week. Many people, including Jane McGuire, attended.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Wanda Evitts was a fixture on the Vol State campus for 17
years, last working in Human Resources. She passed away on December 2. She
started working here in 1993 as a work study and then part time Payroll Clerk
until 1998 when she became full time. She retired in 2010 as Human
Resources Clerk.

“Wanda loved working at Vol State,” said Lori Cutrell,
director Human Resources. “She was typically a quiet individual; however, she
had a great sense of humor, and, when you least expected it, she would make the
funniest remarks that would make everyone laugh. She was also our
historian, as she could remember everything about the college and those who had
worked here. She was a very sweet person and will be greatly missed.”

Monday, December 2, 2013

When six foot four Steve Delabar walks down a
hallway it’s hard not to notice, even in the Pickel Field House, where athletes
come and go all day long. The Major League Baseball All-Star pitcher is back at
Vol State.

“It feels like I never left, walking the halls,”
Delabar said. “A lot of the staff is the same. It feels like only yesterday
since I was here.”

Yesterday was actually 11 years ago, the last time
Delabar pitched for the Vol State baseball team. In that time, the Toronto Blue
Jays player has been in and out of surgery and in and out of the majors. His
latest stint, though, is going quite well. He pitched in the seventh inning of
the 2013 All-Star Game in New York.

“It was kind of a blur going there,” Delabar said. “You
try to soak it up all you can and enjoy it.”

When asked what it felt like when he walked out on
the field to pitch, he said it was all business.

“It felt like my job. I didn’t know who I was
facing. I got in there and threw my warm up pitches.”

Delabar secured a strike out. He then
went on to pitch an immaculate inning, the first in Blue Jays history, a few
weeks later. An immaculate inning is nine pitches for three strike outs.

He returned to Vol State recently to speak to the young
Pioneer pitchers.

“I’m just going to talk to them,” he said. “I’m sure they
have a lot of questions. When it comes down to it they have their own path they
need to create.

Much of the talk focused on strength, repetition and
velocity. Baseball trainers look for conditioning ideas from all sorts of
sports. For pitchers, that means considering what tennis players do to build
strength.

And when asked about playing community college baseball,
compared to big university programs Delabar says the path depends on you.

“The Vol State program was really good when I was here and
there were a lot of scouts watching us.If you play well enough here you can get picked up by a major league
team.”

Will Newman of Ashland City is the new Senior Director of Plant
Operations at Vol State. In that role, he supervises the maintenance,
facilities and custodial staffs at the College. Newman comes most recently from
DELEK/MAPCO in Brentwood where he was Senior Manager of Maintenance for 374
retail locations. He was also Facilities Manager at Hemlock Semiconductor in
Clarksville. He worked in higher education at Fisk University as Assistant
Director of Facilities and Grounds.

“I’ve worked in all the aspects of property management and the one that
was the most fulfilling was education,” he said. “You can really enjoy the
people around you and see the students go on and graduate.”

Newman is a decorated war veteran with service in the US Army for
Operation Iraqi Freedom. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Professional and
Technical Management from Austin Peay State University.

“The team here at Vol State is above and beyond other local colleges. I
want to add some new techniques and opportunities using what they have already
worked so hard to establish. There are just so many opportunities here. I’m
working with a staff that really wants to be here.”

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The Vol State Insider is produced by the Office of Public Relations. It's a newsletter blog designed primarily for faculty and staff, although everyone is welcome to view and comment. You can contact us at pr@volstate.edu